Monday I woke up early (still getting used to local time), had breakfast at the W, then went for a walk with Girish. The W is located in the hilly eastern outskirts of Seoul, about as far as you can possibly get from Incheon airport (about 30 miles).
We hopped a cab to the JW Tower where Y! Korea is located. Looking at the many businessmen walking around in dark suits, we were initially concerned that we might be underdressed. This proved unfounded: the Yahoo’s in Seoul dress casually, and they inhabit a very Yahoo-like environment (complete with a free espresso bar and foosball tables).
After Girish gave his presentation on bucket testing, we went to the Y! Korea Overture office and met with Carolyn, who took us out to dinner at a local restaurant. The four of us had our own small room, which gave us the freedom to talk at great length and in extreme detail about nerdy aspects of YSM optimization.
Afterwards we walked Carolyn to her hotel, then caught a cab back to the W. I racked around 9:30PM.
This morning, we had breakfast at the W, checked out and cabbed it once again to Y! Korea.
Got into Incheon airport last night, made it to the W in seoul without incident. Was completely exhausted last night, but this morning I’m feeling OK. Robert, Girish and I are going to have breakfast in a bit.
The W is great … very pleased with the amenities. For all I know, I could be in LA
Last weekend went camping in Big Basin with Brett and his roommate Chris. Hiked 5.5 miles through gigantic redwood trees; my new boots, which I were concerned were too large, actually felt good. There was a sign at the beginning of the trail saying “warning: strenuous hike”, and it wasn’t kidding. There were lots of uphills; it was strange, on the uphill parts I lagged way behind, but on the flat parts I outpaced the other guys … I guess it has something to do with my long legs.
This was definitely a step up on the “roughing it” scale. My previous car-camping excursion to the Pinnacles with Sanjay, Kristen, Laura, Anne et. al. looks like a luxury vacation in comparison. No bathrooms, no water. We went to a nearby stream that had strange orange-colored silt in it, elected not to drink from that, and had to hike half a mile to a stream at the bottom of a nearby ravine. Hallinan had a water-purification gadget–we weren’t roughing it that much. Which made me think about how I take access to potable water for granted … it’s one of the big issues in the developing world.
I was amazed at how much water I consumed. My camelbak water bag holds 3 liters of water, and I completely drained it on the hike over.
We camped one night. For dinner, I had chicken with noodles in a bag … pretty ingenious, you just pour boiling water in the bag, zip it closed, wait a few minutes and eat. I then retired to my tent (actually Sanjay’s tent) and read Michael Connelly’s The Narrows by the light of my headlamp, like a kid camping in his backyard. Chris broke out some premium rum he bought in Honduras, which I used to spike my cider.
The next morning I had dehydrated eggs in a bag for breakfast, which was decidedly less inspiring than the previous night’s meal. Note to self: get the version with bacon next time.
As we hiked back, I kept marveling at the size of the redwood trees, and noticed how huge fallen trees were everywhere.
We made it back to Brett’s SUV and drove back on the windy, perilous road to Los Gatos. It’s hard to believe that Big Basin is only 30 minutes from Los Gatos–you could have told me I was in Yosemite and I would have believed you.
We ate Mexican food at Andale Taqueria in Los Gatos. My legs, which until this point had felt remarkably good, were amazingly stiff, and I hobbled over to the restaurant.
Last week at work was busy, because I’m being pulled in three directions: first, I’m still managing bucket testing for marketplace; second, I’m managing production metrics for Yahoo Answers; third, I’m trying to get a top-secret side project off the ground.
On Friday I left the Santa Clara campus feeling a little uninspired. Yahoo is a big company, there’s a lot of political maneuvering, and I sometimes run into people whose sole talent is corporate politics. These people (who thankfully are small in number) have no interest in technology or product, and no passion for anything other than playing the corporate game. They speak in abstruse bureaucratese filled with jargon and self-justification. They talk a lot but think very little. Just being around them sucks the creativity out of you. This is how I felt as I drove towards the Sunnyvale campus for the 2006 Yahoo Open Hack Day.
I was lured to Hack Day by a call from Vince Maniago, who alerted me that the Upcoming guys had set up Guitar Hero on the big screen in the cafeteria. I wasn’t going to pass up a chance to show off my ability to beat the song “Unsung” on Expert with a blindfold on.
I arrive at the Sunnyvale campus to find a festival atmosphere. Geeks have set up tents in the Sunnyvale quad, in anticipation of a full night of programming. The cafeteria is full of internet enthusiasts, many with laptops. (Yahoo has provided free public wifi, of course.) There is beer, nachos and massive quantities of pizza. And of course, people playing Guitar Hero on the big screen. Outside, Beck is doing a sound check. I’m a huge Beck fan, so I ignore the organizers’ pleas to watch the opening presentation and watch the soundcheck instead. When the soundcheck is over, I go back inside, hobnob with the digerati in attendance, and play some Guitar Hero.
Beck goes on shortly after 8. He gives an amazing show … the highlights for me are:
1) the four puppeteers at the back of the stage who are mimicking the entire concert using puppets, which is visible on a large screen that Mr. Beck calls the “puppetron”
2) His bassist’s hair
3) His acoustic version of “Debra” in response to my shouted request
4) A mosh pit that formed late in the show. Seriously. There were a bunch of nerds moshing, I was right next to the pit, 10 rows back from the stage.
I hung out until about 11:30, long enough for Huey to show up and miserably fail to duplicate my 95% blindfolded accuracy on “Unsung”. Made it home around midnight.
The weekend was pretty sedate. I went to OSH and bought a bunch of compact fluorescent light bulbs as part of my campaign to save the planet. I’m happy to report that the light they emit is indistinguishable from a normal incandescent bulb. I’m seriously never buying an incandescent bulb again. My other OSH purchase was two sets of light fixture screws to replace the ones in the hall that hadn’t been changed since 1953. On Saturday I took the Smelly for a really long walk and cleaned my office. Today I finished cleaning my office and spent some time getting organized.
Last night Uyen went to the opera with Jenny, she also had her first Mandarin lessons in there somewhere. Today we skyped PC-to-PC for the first time, and tried out my webcam (actually Sanjay’s webcam) with good results. I think she really wanted to talk to the dog though
By the way, if you’ve read this far, you’re probably me.
Not the most eventful week. Tuesday played ultimate with Huey et. al. at Baylands Park, the “highlight” was Huey taking advantage of my lack of cleats in the endzone by doing a quick cut that I couldn’t follow while I was covering him. The incident was visually pretty hilarious.
Went to Queen of Pho with the Huey afterwards, we got into a big conversation on the game theory behind “Deal or No Deal”, which was playing on the restaurant’s TV.
Wednesday a laptop caught fire at Yahoo, apparently after someone on the 8th floor of MC1 left a battery on top of their laptop keyboard. I had to evacuate my building, which sucked because I was trying to get ready for a presentation. Apparently a bunch of people were on the 8th floor (meeting about my favorite technology, a concept matching thing called “units”) and didn’t hear the alarm … someone had to knock on the conference room door and tell them to exit through the thick smoke.
My folks got back from Africa on Wednesday, cutting their trip short because of a slightly adverse reaction one of them had to Malarone. But all in all it sounds like a success.
Thursday I went with Brett to the Mountainview REI and dropped a sizeable amount of money on new hiking boots and a backpack. We’re doing a 5.3 mile hike in Big Basin tomorrow, then pitching camp.
Today was pretty slow … ended up leaving work early. An email from Yahoo HR about us being forced to take vacation days in December ended up leaked to Valleywag the same day … what a truly impressive source of rumors, gossip and (mis)information.
Friday I moved back to my old desk, after getting a call from Y! facilities that the new SVP of marketplace (Hilary Schneider) is going to be taking my desk … oh well, my window cube was nice while it lasted
I met with Amr and discussed the re-org, then played some Ghost Recon with him and Eckart. Mihir called to suggest dinner, I said sure. Bailed on Huey’s poker game, went home, changed, then drove to SF with my new Garmin nav system leading the way … although the stupid thing told me to take Van Ness up to Mihir’s house, obviously it doesn’t know that the lights on Franklin are timed.
After driving around Mihir’s neighborhood for a while and finding no parking, I picked him up near his place. He had selected Nopa, a hot new restaurant whose prices are still low. We drove around for about 90 minutes before finally finding a spot; for posterity, here’s the path recorded by my new toy, the Garmin StreetPilot 2720.
Critics compare Nopa to another of my favorite SF hangouts, the Zuni Cafe. Anyway I give Nopa high marks: it had great atmosphere (it was still hopping even when we left around midnight) and incredible food.
We ordered sardines and salmon carpaccio for appetizers; the sardines were large and served warm, which I had not seen before. The salmon carpaccio was smooth and buttery, although Mihir thought it was a little bland. I had the fish (bass?), which was perfectly done: seared and crisp on the outside, buttery soft on the inside (the key is to use an extremely hot pan). Mihir had the fish stew, which was extremely flavorful. We also ordered a side of French fries, which were good, but not as incredible as the critics had led us to believe. For dessert I had a competent strawberry sorbet and Mihir had a cake that was too dry for his tastes.
Saturday I ate a late lunch at Copenhagen in Burlingame, then spent the rest of the afternoon setting up Uyen’s laptop (which took much longer than I anticipated).
Today I dropped Sanj off at Mollie Stone’s, picked up some sandwiches at Copenhagen, then picked him up. I took the Smelly for a walk (the standard route, I was too thirsty for a bigger route). Sanj cooked a meal of fresh greens (actually grown at our house!) and heirloom tomatoes, followed by roast chicken with carrots and potatoes. And he pays the rent on time too!
My folks are still in Africa, Sanj is going to visit his dad back East (Queens?) for a surprise birthday celebration, and I’m thinking about going to see Uyen over Columbus Day.
Somehow, I still haven’t cleaned up my mess of an office, which was the one thing I wanted to get done this week.
